Education

Everyone deserves the opportunity to acquire the knowledge and skills that will help them thrive. While significant progress has been made in terms of educational access over the past decade, the shortfall remains staggering, with tens of millions of children around the world out of school. Even among those children who are in school, too many are being taught in overly crowded classrooms or by poorly trained teachers, and are not fully benefiting from their education. Adults also need the chance to complete education that they missed out on as children, or pursue further training that will allow them to better compete in the labor market.

The WORLD Policy Analysis Center has analyzed educational rights, laws, and policies in all 193 UN member states to produce globally comparative data relevant to making universal access to quality education a reality. In order to shed light on the steps that countries take to protect children’s and adults’ educational opportunities, we investigated education policies and regulations that are currently in place in all UN member states. Our findings about constitutional rights to education, access to free and compulsory education, and the quality of education are displayed on the maps in this section.